Thiruvananthapuram: Former DMRC chairman E Sreedharan has been deprived of the honorific "state icon" by the Election Commission of India.
The Chief Electoral Officer has directed the officials to remove Sreedharan's pictures from district election offices following his recent induction by the BJP.
A few prominent Keralites were accorded this honour by the Election Commission in its bid to create awareness among people about the need to participate in the election process. It had chosen Sreedharan and playback singer K S Chitra as state icons of Kerala.
Sreedharan is the recipient of Government of India's civilian honours Padma Shri and the Padma Vibhushan. Chithra too is a Padma Shri honoree and was recently conferred with the Padma Bhushan.
For several years the election body has been campaigning in various ways to increase the voter turnout in elections. Such efforts proved to be a success as the electoral data over the recent years shows.
